Holy. Shit.
My hand slipped off the desk, jolting me to standing, my brows shooting up. “Wait. Have you?”
He looked away as he took a deep breath and I saw a twitch start up in his jaw.
“I’m a guy, Molly, of course I have. You’re fucking beautiful. I’d have to be blind not to wonder.”
I remembered being in college and watching Felix at practice one day when I should have been studying. I sat there watching him skate in and out of cones as he and Drew raced each other the length of the ice. When he’d won, he’d turned and winked at me, grinning, and I’d thought he was so beautiful, that his smile was so beautiful, and I spent a long time wondering what it would be like to hear him tell me I was beautiful.
And now he was in front of me, saying it.
I must have had a million responses prepared for what I would say if the moment ever arose.
“But you’ve never even looked at me like that!” I blurted.
That wasn’t one of the million.
His head snapped up, the blue eyes stormy and dark as they swept across mine. “I’ve never been allowed to look at you.”
“What does that mean?”
“Coop will kick my fucking ass and then feed me my balls. There’s a code, and I broke it. When he finds out about this…”
“Why does he even have to know?” I interrupted before I could stop myself, because I clearly hadn’t taken my verbal diarrhea meds.
He scrubbed his hands through his thick scruff. “Fuck, Molly. You’re his baby sister! He’ll know.”
My expression hardened and my teeth ground together. “I’m not a fucking baby! And I’m the same age as you!”
His brows knotted, like he hadn’t even realized.
My hands flew up in the air, because I was unable to hold the exasperation. “Oh my God, you don’t even know how old I am!”
“Of course I know how old you are. You’re thirty-two.”
“I just…”
“You’ll be thirty-three in February.” He pinned me with an ‘I told you I knew’look.
I rolled my eyes. Urgh. Whatever. What difference does it make? We’re just friends. We’ve always beenjust friends. I’ve locked it down for years, and I’ll do it again. I just need a few more weeks.
“What does that mean?”
I looked up from the spot on the floor I’d been staring at. “What does what mean?”
“You’ve locked what down for years?”
My eyes bugged, horrified, and I just about stopped my jaw from dropping open before I resembled an actual goldfish.Did I just say that out loud?
OhmyGod. Am I talking out loud now?
No.
Thank fuck.
“Molly? Locked what down?” He stared at me, waiting for a response. “Molly?”
“Nothing.”
